Out of concern for the health and wellness of our community and staff, the library will be indefinitely closed to the public starting Friday, March 13 at 5 PM. Staff will be working to make sure all fines and fees will be waived, all due dates for materials will be extended and library privilege will be extended if expired during this time.
This decision will be reassessed on a regular basis, and we will be reopening as soon as we can safely do so. For more information please visit our website and social media pages as we will be offering limited library services, virtual learning, and activities to the best of our ability. Thank you for your understanding.
Local Resources
For updates on the developing situation locally, you can check the following resources:
Red Bank Green is covering Borough closures and local government and business responses to the outbreak.
The Asbury Park Press is covering closures and news in Monmouth and Ocean County.
Virus Information Resources
The Library encourages its patrons to adopt a skeptical stance to information found online — misinformation spreads very easily in times like these. The Library created a “How to Spot Fake News” resource page several years back, which we have been updating regularly — it’s an excellent primer on basic media literacy.
For information on the disease itself, we recommend starting with the following two sources:
Patron Resources
During this time, we encourage users to utilize the many digital remote services available as much as possible. We provide electronic access to a variety of library materials, including:
Books and Audiobooks (Hoopla, Libby by Overdrive, Freading )
Magazines (RBDigital)
Movies and TV Shows (Hoopla)
We also provide online access to magazine, newspaper, and journal articles, and services like online courses from Universal Class and Rosetta Stone. Additional information regarding our digital remote services can be found on the resources page on our website.
We hope to continue offering programming streaming over the internet via Facebook Live. We have already posted a Story Time, which you can watch here. You can follow us on Facebook here.
The Library has placed a WiFi signal extender next to the windows by the Children’s Room. Anyone wishing to use our WiFi could sit at our backyard picnic tables and get the signal there.
The Red Bank Public will continue to work closely with Borough and County offices to monitor this developing situation. We will continue to post new information on our web site and other communications channels as updates occur. We thank you for your cooperation.
Stay Healthy!